‘Sit up and stop the contradictions’ – Adom-Otchere tells BoG Boss

The Host of Metro TV’s Good Evening Ghana, Paul Adom-Otchere, has slammed the governor of the Central Bank, Dr Ernest Addison and urged him to “sit up” and behave in a manner that befits the office he holds.

According to Adom-Otchere, the several press conference held by the Central Bank governor has been full of contradictions and misconceptions adding that Dr. Addison “talks like an MP.”

Adom-Otchere on his show on Tuesday, January 8 2019, said the banking reforms being undertaken by the Bank Of Ghana has unnerved some Ghanaians causing serious discomfort among members of the BoG.

Adom-Otchere’s comments come after the ex-Board of Heritage Bank – which was shut down by the Central Bank on January 4 – dismissed the reasons outlined by the BoG governor for revoking the license of the Bank and describing them as lies and misrepresentations.

Taking on the Dr. Addison on Good Evening Ghana, Adom-Otchere suggested that there is the possibility that the BoG governor is being manipulated.

“People are unnerved because of the conduct of the central bank, and the conduct of the governor of the central bank in regularly addressing press conferences in which there is contradiction after contradiction after contradiction.

“The central bank has still not told us, for instance, that those banks that have not met the minimum capitalisation requirement, like those banks who are going to benefit from the Ghana Amalgamated Trust (GAT); what is their status as of 1 January 2019? Are they still class one banking licence holders? He held an entire press conference and did not address a matter that sticks out so clearly like this. …You just leave that whole lacuna there. What should we do with it? We should guess it? You see, the central bank is in serious trouble. And this banking reform thing is creating a worse problem for the people at the central bank.

“When you read some of the things Dr Botchwey said, it will shock you. And if Dr Botchwey is right, and because of his stature, I’d like to believe him, then it is shocking the way the central bank behaves.

“The governor of the bank of Ghana holds a press conference, the governor who holds a sacrosanct position that when he speaks nobody should speak. He speaks more than the Finance Minister, he speaks as if he’s an MP, every day he’s doing a press conference, he’s the only governor in the history of Ghana, who has done a press conference and he’s not talking about monetary policy.

“Dr Addison is the only governor in the whole world who runs press conferences like … Have you ever heard any governor anywhere doing a press conference? Dr Addison holds press conferences just like that and at every press conference, he doesn’t impress. He contradicts himself.

“Dr Kwesi Botchwey is virtually telling the governor in the press [statement] that you’re lying. That’s what he’s saying. Why should we subject our central bank governor, the one who holds the entire authority of the central bank to these kinds of things? I hope that somebody is not manipulating him. Sorry to use that word, but this central bank governor must sit up and be a central bank governor. Take up the badge and the chair and the suit of distinction to be a central bank governor. We’ve seen them; Agama, Amon Nii Koi, Kwabena Duffour. We’ve seen them. Why, central bank governor? Dr Kwesi Botchwey says you are lying. And Dr Kwesi Botchwey was for 13 years the Finance Minister … and you have made allegations against him as board chairman of Heritage Bank and he says that you are lying. … They are telling you, Dr Addison, that you are dishonest. I’m sorry, this is what Kwesi Botchwey is saying”, Adom-Otchere said.